Saturn Rise
by jespah
Summary: Are some things unforgivable? Are some people irredeemable? In May of 2162, Malcolm takes Lili to meet his parents as Pamela takes Treve to meet her sister, Lisa.
1. Chapter 1

1

"Play nicely, kids," Lili Beckett said, adjusting baby Declan Reed in her arms on a lovely May afternoon. Her two others, Joss and Marie Patrice Beckett, played with Geming Sulu's daughter, Jia, and Cyril Morgan's granddaughter, Cindy. But Joss was really just paying attention to Fenway, Cindy's Boston terrier puppy.

"Jo-oss," called Jia, "come over and play tag with us." The only boy mumbled his response as the adults had coffee and Lili's blueberry cobbler.

"Joss," Lili put a hand out and touched her elder son on his arm, "go play with the girls."

"But –" he whistled to the puppy to follow him.

Jia and Cindy came closer to him, both giggling. "You're it!" laughed Jia, running away.

Lili turned to Geming and Cyril. "A flirt at age five, eh?"

"Yes," Geming sighed, "at age five, God help me."

"And then they get older and they're even more of a handful at times, eh?" Cyril smiled.

"Oh?" asked Geming.

"My niece, Pamela Hudson. Have you met her?"

"I don't think so."

"Pamela is here on Lafa II a lot," Lili explained, "but I don't think she's moved here. Is she planning to?"

"She doesn't confide such things to me," Cyril replied. "I think they could use her talents at the Med Center. But I suspect it all depends on how things go with a certain young man."

Geming's eyebrow went up so Lili filled him in. "Pamela is dating Treve, my business partner. She has been for most of 2162."

"A Calafan?" Geming asked.

"Yes. And she told me she's going to take him to Charon and have him meet her sister, Lisa," Cyril confided.

"So it's serious," Lili smiled, "I'm glad; she always struck me as someone who hadn't quite found her happiness yet."

"So, what is new in your life?" Cyril inquired to change the subject as the children jumped and laughed and the dog barked on occasion and Declan slept a bit.

"Well, this one's daddy – I've never met his parents. Er, Malcolm's parents. We had talked about them coming here, but there's just no room at either house, and I can't see putting the Reeds into a Calafan hotel."

"The Fep City Hotel is rather nice," Geming stated. "Jia, don't wander too far!"

"I've been there," Lili clarified. "And I like it. But it's kinda Spartan. I think they'd find it lacking in certain human amenities."

"How fussy could they be?" Geming inquired.

"Very," she sighed. "I'm just a little, okay, more than a little, concerned. I want it to go well when I finally meet them."

"It'll be fine," Cyril assured her. "They will fall in love with your son, and then with you. I guarantee it."

"Thanks, but they're also saying they don't want to travel so far. I kinda don't blame them. When you're not on a starship, it does take a while to get here."

"The Lafa System is certainly far from everything else," Geming agreed. "This is why I moved here when Mai did. I meant to tell you; I suppose being nearby did us both some good. We've decided to reconcile, and to remarry."

"That's wonderful!" Lili enthused. "Are you sure you're not just doing this for Jia?" She paused for a moment. "We don't know each other that well; I probably shouldn't pry like that."

"No, it's a fair question," Geming allowed. "But it's, really, that we decided to forgive each other. I suppose that was what we needed to do."

"Then here's to forgiveness," Cyril declared, raising his coffee cup as four suns shone over Lafa II and the children played happily and the dog occasionally barked as the lazy afternoon became a lovely, golden evening.

=/\=

"Yes, yes, Mother, all right. Very well. See you soon. Good-bye." Malcolm Reed stood in the little cheery yellow kitchen in a home he had purchased. It was just up a little rise from where Lili lived with her children, their son and her husband, Doug Beckett. He looked through the window of his kitchen where he could see her kitchen. She was in there making supper, and she waved at him.

He jogged down the rise to their house. There was a sound of a car in the driveway; her husband was coming home. "Do you wanna have dinner with us?" Lili asked, kissing him. She then leaned through the doorway to the living room. "Joss, Marie Patrice, wash up, please."

"I didn't come to wangle a supper invitation," Malcolm stated.

The door opened and Doug walked in. "Hey! I missed ya," he said to Lili, kissing her. "How ya doin'?" he asked Malcolm. The two men shook hands. The Becketts' open marriage was cordial, and Malcolm was tolerated and often well-received by Doug. Then again, Doug had his own paramour, Melissa Madden, who had two sons with him and was raising them in nearby Fep City with her lover, Leonora Digiorno, who everybody called Norri.

"Not so bad as all that," Malcolm replied. "But I do have a request."

"Oh? You can just borrow the hedge clippers; you don't have to ask," Doug assured him.

"No, it's not that. It's my parents, Lili; they don't wish to make the trip. Mother says that Father has gotten a bit frailer. She thinks it would be too much for him."

"Then we should go to them, right? I mean, they should meet Declan, no matter what." She turned the flame off on a burner on the stove and drained the pasta water. The baby was in another room and started to cry. "Speaking of Declan, can one of you take care of things while I finish up here?"

Malcolm went to tend to his son, but Doug got there first. "Hey, Buddy," he said gently to the infant, "you uncomfortable?" he felt under a swaddled bottom. "Ah, it's just as I suspected."

Malcolm stood in the doorway to the room, which was for Declan and Marie Patrice while the little girl's room was being painted. "You don't have to do that while I am here, you know."

"Oh, it's okay," Doug replied. He was a big guy, the captain of his military unit, which protected the local diplomatic attaché. "I got the land-speed record in diaper changing. But you'll steal my title if I don't stay in practice."

Malcolm smiled a bit at that. "Do you mind terribly if I borrow Lili for a while? I would like very much for her to meet my mother and father. They have never met anyone I was involved with, ever."

"Then you should go. Hell, maybe take Empy and Joss, too," Doug suggested. "They're Dec's siblings. And they think of your folks as being their grandparents, and Melissa and Norri's folks, too. Otherwise, they don't have grandparents. And they should have someone like that, eh?"

"That's true," Malcolm murmured absently. "I don't get on with my parents too well. But I suppose I should not complain."

"Because they're still alive?" Doug inquired. "Hand me the powder, okay?"

Malcolm handed the article over. "Well, yes."

"Listen, I was plenty angry with my folks, for years. See," Doug explained as he finished diapering the baby, "back where I come from, everybody goes to boarding school at age seven. But my father jumped the gun, because I'm born in December. He got me accepted into the Triton Day School when I was six and change. I went there, terrified, not knowing what to expect. No one had told me a damned thing. He had just indoctrinated me in the ways of the Terran Empire. It was the _Five Signs of Weakness_. I memorized them – we all had to. I was beat up my first day, and cried all night."

"How horrible."

"Well yeah, it was. But you get hardened, you do what you need to, in order to get by, I suppose. It took me less than a year to realize that what my parents had done to me was terrible. I got angry with them, and I channeled it all into doing my best to improve myself. I ran, I lifted, and I studied. I was driven, even at a young age. That kept me alive and it got me into West Point. But when I heard my old man had died, I, well, I'm not proud of this. But I went on a bender for a good day there. Got really stinking hammered. As for my mother's death in 2150, I coulda been there, but I wasn't – I decided to go after Shelby Pike instead. I'm not too proud of that, either."

"So you never forgave them?" Malcolm asked.

"No," Doug admitted. "And now we're all parents, and we even named Joss after them, I get it was kinda late compensation, or something. I've vowed to do better, but I bet we'll screw things up, too. Will he forgive us?" he indicated the baby, who was looking from one face to another.

"I, I don't know."

=/\=

Dinner finished, the children went back to playing as Doug loaded the sanitizer and Malcolm wiped down the table and the baby slept in a nearby bassinette. "Yanno," Lili ventured, "I spent the afternoon with Geming Sulu and Cyril Morgan and the two girls. I think Jia's got a crush on Joss."

"Heh, well, we grow up fast in the mirror," Doug said, a hint of pride in his tone. She gave him a bit of a look, so he added, "But I'm not in the Mirror Universe anymore. And Joss has to grow up here."

"And not too quickly," Lili added. "Otherwise he's a grown-up when he's eleven or something. And that just doesn't feel right. But I haven't told you the big news."

"News?" Malcolm inquired.

"Cyril said that Pamela and Treve are going to Charon so that he can meet her sister. It is apparently a very, very big deal for your ex to bring him to meet Lisa."

"I'm glad for her," Malcolm declared. "She and I were not truly happy together. We were mismatched, you see. I do hope it works out for her."

"I was thinking," Lili added, "they're going to Charon. Maybe we could tag along, but go further into the Solar System."

"All the way to Earth?" Doug asked.

"I dunno. Malcolm, do you think your folks would go to Titan, where I grew up?"

"I think they can be persuaded. Are you certain you wish to spend that much time with Treve and Pamela?"

"Oh, I think it'll be fine," Lili said.

Doug suggested, "Then you really could bring Empy and Joss along, too. They're Dec's siblings and all."

Malcolm thought for a moment. "By all means. Let us do just that."

=/\=

They got onto a transport a few days later. It was a total of seven people – Lili and Malcolm, Declan, Joss and Marie Patrice, and Pamela and Treve. Doug came to see them off, with Melissa and Norri and the two other boys, Tommy – he was about Marie Patrice's age – and Neil Digiorno-Madden, who was another infant. "Sure you don't wanna come along?" Lili asked her husband.

"Nah, it's okay. Go and do what you need to. Norri says their car is acting up again. So I can do that, and I can finish the painting. And I should work, get in some overtime. After all, _Reversal _will be closed while you and Treve are out. Someone's gotta bring home the bacon."

"When I come home," she promised, "I will make you something with bacon in it. And orange chicken because I know you love it." They kissed. "Come say good-bye, kids."

Their children hugged and kissed their father good-bye. Malcolm came over, too. "Thank you for this."

"Hey, you're on paternity leave," Doug said, "so if this isn't the time to do this, then I dunno when. Lili, contact me on communicator tonight, okay?"

"Every night!" she promised, and they left.

=/\=

Aboard the transport, they presented their PADDs to show their tickets. "All right," said an Andorian ticket taker. "Three berths, all on the fourth deck. Up the lift, over there. Next, please."

Pamela turned to Treve once they'd exited the lift. "Why do we have two separate berths?"

He steered her into his berth and the door shut behind them. "I, well, I want things to be respectable." A native Calafan man, he was bald, with solid silver arms, and was about a decade younger than her.

"No one'll know. And Lili and Reed won't tell anyone." She kissed him.

"Uh, Pamela? Might I tell you something?"

"Yeah, sure." She sighed a bit and sat down on the bed. He sat down next to her.

"When we Calafans, when we have relations, uh, we can bond. It can be an extremely strong pair bond emotionally. It can also be a physical bond. We can become a bit stuck."

"Oh?"

"And I just think, well, I like you. I want you to know just how much I truly do. But I do not wish to get into this, this type of a situation unless we are both absolutely certain. I mean, would it not be a major issue if I were to bond to you prematurely?"

"I, I see. So, Treve, you're worried that I don't feel the same way about you. Is that it?"

Treve took her hands, with their perfectly manicured fingernails that sported a dark purple polish – the color of a bruise, the color she always wore – and said, "All I want is for us to commit at the same level and at the same time. All right? It's not doubts about you. It's a desire to get this right from the, the very start."

They kissed. "I think I can understand that," Pamela allowed. "I just wanna, um, you know." She was suddenly shy, and hadn't ever been shy about such things. She got up and went out into the hallway and knocked on the next-door cabin's door.

"Yes?" Malcolm asked, opening the door. Behind him, the kids were watching the viewer and the baby was in a crib as Lili struggled with a cot. It looked very crowded in there.

"I got an idea," Pamela said, "Marie Patrice, how would you like to be my very special roommate for this trip? I've got lots of room next door and I could really," she glanced over at Treve, who was standing behind her, "use the company. So whaddaya say?"

"Can I? Can I?" the little girl was excited.

"Sure," Lili said, "and maybe you can figure out this damned cot." There was another cot, still folded up, probably identical to the first.

"Joss, if you would like to room with me, that would be all right with me," Treve stated.

"Are you both, are you sure?" Malcolm inquired.

"You already have your hands full," Treve observed. "Here, I'll see if I can't figure out those cots, all right? Then you'll just have to look after the young master."

"Oh, you're a lifesaver!" Lili gushed. "Tonight's dinner is on us. Our treat, okay?"

"Then I'll have a steak," Pamela announced, coming into their cabin to grab Marie Patrice's little bag.

=/\=

While Lili and Treve worked on getting the kids situated in the other cabins, Malcolm and Pamela went out for a walk, with Malcolm carrying Declan. "You're a good father," Pamela remarked.

"Eh, I try. I'm doing my level best to be around as much as possible while I'm on paternity leave these few years. But Declan here does live with Lili and Doug. I cannot just go there whenever I please. Doug's been rather good about things. I was a tad surprised that you would volunteer to open up your cabin to Marie Patrice. She's only two years old, you know."

"Something with their father, right? Spare me the details, but there's something about Beckett, I know, that makes him strong and makes his kids stronger and bigger than anyone should have any right to expect. But, uh, Reed? Can I tell you something?"

"To be sure."

"I – uh, I want this all to go well, Treve meeting Lisa and all. I guess you're in the same boat, with Lili and your folks."

"I am indeed. I should tell you. I have never, ever introduced them to anyone, to any girlfriend. Things were different before you. Pamela, being with you, it was a kind of a turning point in my life. And I should like to thank you for that."

"You were kinda a turning point in my life, too, yanno. I do appreciate it. But you know more about my past than Treve does."

"Oh." Malcolm stopped walking. "When do you imagine you'll tell him of your past?"

"I don't know." She shook her head.

"Do you love Treve?"

"I'm not really sure if I'm ready for that. I think I need to see Lisa again – it's been years. I need to see if we can somehow be a bit of a family again."

"Perhaps you all can."

"It's funny. Treve mentioned to me that they bond, that Calafans bond with too much physical contact. That's why he's holding back. You know me, I was ready to hit the sack maybe an hour after I'd met him. But he's held back, and he finally told me why today. He's afraid that he'll bond with me but it might be too early for me. He doesn't wanna push things; he wants them to be right."

"I think you're rather fortunate. He seems to be ideal for you, Pamela."

She smiled and looked down. "I never introduced anyone to anyone in my family, either. These are uncharted waters for me, too."

=/\=

The remainder of the trip passed uneventfully, and Treve and Pamela got off at Charon. The transport traveled farther into the Solar System and sent shuttles to the surface of Titan and Malcolm, Lili and the kids were on one of them. "It's been years since I was here," Lili remarked as they landed. "It feels strange."

"I imagine you've changed a bit," Malcolm said, "and perhaps the moon has as well. I have never been here before." They were set down in front of the New France Hotel, which was an older building, almost a layer cake of architecture.

"Now I _know_ things are different. I never stayed here," Lili commented.

"I'm sure you didn't have much cause to. Uh, two rooms, please," Malcolm said to the desk clerk, "reservation is under the name Reed."

"Ah, yes," replied an Andorian clerk. "There is already a party here with that name. Shall I put you near them?"

"Yes, please," Malcolm said absently, trying to keep track of Marie Patrice and Joss as they were curious and were wandering off a little.

"Fifth floor. Lift is over there," the clerk pointed.

They thanked him and departed. While in the lift, Malcolm flipped open his communicator. "We've arrived. We'll be on your floor." He closed the device before anyone had had a chance to respond, as they had gotten to the fifth floor.

A door to one of the rooms opened, and an elderly grey-haired human woman peered out. "Malcolm, is that you?" she inquired.

"Yes, Mother."

Marie Patrice ran over first. "Grandmother Mary! Grandmother Mary!" she jumped up and down a few times in her excitement. "I'm wearing the gloves you made me!" She clapped her hands together for emphasis, with only a dull sound, as the yellow woolen gloves with white lace cuffs that she had on muffled the sound.

"My, oh my, who's this?" Mary asked, kneeling down until her joints cracked. Marie Patrice fairly well leapt into her arms. "Oh, and you're wearing the gloves. I am so very pleased. They look very stylish." Mary straightened up carefully. Joss approached, and she asked, "Is this Declan? Are you Declan?"

"No, no, Mother," Malcolm explained, "this is Jeremiah."

"Joss," Joss mumbled.

"Here is Lili with Declan," Malcolm stated.

"Oh my, of course, my error," Mary said, looking at the baby as Lili held him. "He resembles you quite a bit, Malcolm."

"Mother, I should like to present Lili Beckett."

"How d'ya do?" Mary asked. "It is good to meet you all. Madeline will be joining us tomorrow."

Malcolm had been carrying their bags. He put them onto the hotel's carpeted hallway floor and then leaned over his mother and gave her the briefest of kisses. "Lili, have you the keys?"

"I do," she adjusted the baby, "uh, do you wanna hold him?" she asked Mary.

"More than anything," the older woman said. "Stuart, come out and meet everyone."

Lili and Malcolm exchanged the tiniest of glances before she went to open the room next door, and then the one on the other side of it, with keys that were flat bits of polymer with notches stamped out of their sides. Wordlessly, he passed her the bags and she deposited them on the next door room's beds as rapidly as possible.

"What is, who is this?" came a quavering British-accented voice from within Mary's room.

The two older children were already in there. Lili swiftly entered the room, to try to intercept them. "Grandfather Stuart," Joss asked, "right?"

"Yes," Mary confirmed.

"Declan is, he is speaking already?" Stuart asked.

"I made the same error, I'm afraid," Mary explained quickly. "This is Jeremiah. But I believe he prefers to be called something different."

Stuart was thin and frail and a bit shrunken. He was not just like an elder version of Malcolm – he almost seemed like a version that had had the wind knocked out of his sails. He looked up slowly. "Who are these children?"

Marie Patrice was about to lunge in with a hug when Malcolm put a hand up to stop her. "Gently, love."

She came closer to Stuart and said, "My name is Empy." She kissed him on the cheek.

Stuart's tone was one of some confusion, "I thought Malcolm's wife had a boy."

"Uh, hi," Lili bent down to the seated man and kissed him on the cheek. "I'm Lili. And yes, Malcolm and I had a baby boy. Marie Patrice is my daughter and Joss is my son."

"When were you married? Why weren't we invited?" Stuart asked, a little annoyed.

"We aren't married, Father."

"And why the devil not?"

"Because," Lili explained, "I'm married to Doug Beckett. He's Joss and Marie Patrice's father."

Stuart just looked at them in disbelief. Mary shepherded them to the side of the room. " I didn't truly know what to say. Malcolm, I did not wish to lie to your father but, well, I suppose I did not exactly disabuse him of some notions."

Marie Patrice came over. "Grandmother Mary, can you show me how to make gloves?"

Mary knelt down. "Perhaps you shouldn't call me _Grandmother_, dear. I am not truly your grandmother and we are not related at all."

The little girl's lower lip quivered a bit. Lili knew what that meant, and scooped up her daughter. "C'mon, Joss," she called, "we're, uh, they're tired. Come on, young man!" she looked back at Malcolm.

"Uh, yes, yes, the children are tired. I'll take Declan from you, Mother." He took his son and they retreated to the room next door and Marie Patrice started to cry.

=/\=

Once inside the room, Lili and Malcolm looked at each other. "I –", he began.

"Later," she interjected a little sharply, and then softened her tone. "_Please._"

"Very well."

The baby picked up on the stress and began crying, too. Malcolm looked at them all, a little helplessly. "Here, uh, Joss," he finally said, "let's you and I get your things next door, and Marie Patrice's, and get you both unpacked, all right?"

Lili nodded at them and mouthed one word – _thanks _– as they left with the two smaller bags. "Here, let's get you changed," she murmured to Declan, trying to make her voice sound soothing.

"Mommy?" Marie Patrice asked.

"Yes, my sweet?"

"Why doesn't Grandmother Mary l-love me?"

"Oh, sweetie." Lili quickly diapered the baby and washed her hands in record time before kneeling down to hug her daughter. " I don't think it's that she doesn't care."

"Then why can't I call her _Grandmother_?"

"I'm not sure."

=/\=

On Charon, Pamela and Treve had been there for a day, still in separate rooms. They met during the day to go skiing, and then over dinner. "Yanno," she remarked to him as she stuck a fork in her salad, "if I didn't know any better, I'd say we were respectable."

"Well, you know," he deadpanned, "as the elder son of the former First Minister and the current High Priestess of the Calafan people, I am, by definition, the very model of respectability." He smiled at her. "That is, despite my family scandal and all that."

"Scandal?"

"Didn't Lili tell you? She and I know one another because we, er, my father, that is to say, he authorized her abduction when the _NX-01_ made first contact."

"Oh?"

"Yes," Treve confirmed, "see, my father was having an affair. My mother became ill. My brother and sister and I – we did not realize that the two were connected, and that my father's paramour was actively poisoning my mother."

"Good lord."

"See, Lili superficially resembles my mother. Under the guise of studying your species, Lili was taken. My father's paramour, her idea was to force Lili to impersonate my mother at a large festival. It would appear that she would appoint the paramour as the new High Priestess. That all fell apart – Lili's husband, Douglas, he had a hand in rescuing her."

"Sounds romantic," Pamela mused. "The first time I met Doug, I just thought he was this lummox. Then again, the first time I met him, he and Reed had just beat the tar outta each other."

"Malcolm is your ex, is that right?" he took her hand as she had put her fork down and seemed to be finished.

"One of many," Pamela confirmed, "but probably my most important ex. And you?"

"Me? Oh, I wasn't exactly kept under lock and key, but I didn't go 'round chasing women, either. I suppose I had seen enough of that behavior by my own father. He went to prison for a few years there. I'm not so certain I can forgive him for his deeds." He sighed for a moment. "And you? What of your parents?"

Pamela blanched. "You're, you're only meeting my sister." Her communicator chirped and she jumped. She flipped it open. "Hudson here." A pause. "Okay, Lisa, see ya soon. Bye." She closed the device. "Speak of the devil. She'll meet us in the hotel lobby." Treve signed the bill over to his room and they left together.

=/\=

In Mary and Stuart's room, he spoke. "Why the devil does her husband allow this? What kind of a weakling could he be?"

"I'm sure I don't know all the particulars, dear. I just," Mary stated, "it feels as if our Malcolm is getting the short end of the stick, as it were. It appears to me that there is but one way for this to end, with Malcolm being badly hurt, and Declan bounced 'round amongst parents."

"That child will grow up far too confused, no matter what." Stuart declared. "It was, it was good of you to disabuse that little girl of the notion that you are her grandmother. You are not. The sooner the girl understands that, the better for her. It's, it's only for the better. Mary, I don't like that you kept the particulars from me."

"I apologize, and I hope you will forgive me the small deception," Mary sighed. "I am fond of Marie Patrice – I truly am. But I'm afraid you're right. Claiming a kinship that does not truly exist – it is unfair to her, and it potentially could cause her issues in the future. She is already being brought up with a misunderstanding of what a human marriage is all about. To add to that a misunderstanding about family, oh, it seems all too much, and wrong."

=/\=

The Charon Hotel's lobby was well-furnished and crowded, and not all of the crowd was human. Pamela scanned the crowd as Treve waited at her side. "How long has it been since you saw your sister?"

"God, ten years? Fifteen? I don't even have a recent picture. Wait, hang on – there!" Pamela approached a middle-aged woman standing behind the back of a very solid wing chair and tapped her on the shoulder. "Lisa?"

The woman nodded, and they hugged, silently. Lisa, who was older, looked up first. "Is this your fellow?"

"Yes, I am Treve." They shook hands.

"I want you to meet my family," Lisa ventured.

"Okay, um, when?" Pamela asked.

"Uh, now. Hope you don't mind the surprise."

"Sure, that's fine," Pamela replied.

"This is my husband, Robert Schiller. And our daughter, Louise."

"Hi, Sweetie," Pamela said to her niece.

"This is our son, Edward."

"_Oh_." Pamela's tone was cold, as if her feelings had been turned off with a switch.

"What's wrong?" Lisa asked.

"You named your son after our, uh, father."

"Well, yes."

"At least you didn't name your daughter after our mother," Pamela glanced around, anxious.

"Speaking of Mom," Lisa smiled, "I have one more surprise."

An older woman got up from the wing chair. "Pamela?"

Pamela didn't answer, and ran off. Treve shrugged a bit at the Schillers and ran after her.

=/\=

"Mackum?" Joss asked when they were alone in the kids' room.

"Yes?" Malcolm stopped what he had been doing, which was neatly folding and putting away Marie Patrice's clothes.

"They thought I was Dec."

"Well, I suppose they got a tad confused. That can happen as you age, you know."

"And then they got mad that you and Mom aren't married."

"Right." He sat down on one of the beds and patted nearby. The boy sat down. "Allow me to explain something to you, all right?"

"Okay."

"This arrangement, amongst myself, your parents, Melissa and Leonora it's, well, it's rather unique and unconventional. It is even a bit unconventional for people who are used to open marriages – which my parents, most assuredly, are not."

"Oh."

"Joss, you do know that most humans, when they marry, it is just two people, right?"

"Yeah, Mackum."

"That is my parents' marriage, it was your mother's parents' marriage, and your father's parents' as well. I am not denigrating that in the slightest. Some marriages are happier than others. And people sometimes, they stay together, even when, perhaps, it's not such a good idea. But they still do. And I don't argue with their choices."

"Uh, okay."

"But, what I want you to know is, you and Marie Patrice and Declan, and Neil and Tommy as well – you will always be secure, and you will always be loved, no matter what. You call Melissa your mother, and Leonora, and you call me your father at times, too, yet none of us are of biological kinship. We will always, _always_ care for you, and about you, even if, even if things were to, to end." That part stabbed him in the heart, but he had to say it, on the slightest, most off chance that that would ever happen. "And I think that all of that, that it matters far, far more than whatever is allegedly everyone's perfectly correct and accurate title."

=/\=

They were outside, and there were cabs at a stand. Pamela got into one of them and Treve got in as well. She was about to say something to him when the cab driver asked, "Where to?"

"Uh, Crystal Caverns," she said.

The ride was quiet and quick, and she and Treve did not exchange any conversation. They got out at the caverns and walked around for a few minutes. "Can you tell me why you fled?" he inquired.

She looked around furtively. The caverns were a series of crystalline tunnels, carved in the bare rock beneath the surface of Charon. Glittering, beautiful and alien, they were a chilly tourist attraction but at least there weren't too many people there. "Here, let's go in here," she suggested, indicating a passage. He followed her. Once they were both in, and seemed to be alone, he looked at her. "I guess you're waiting for me to explain."

"Yes."

Pamela sighed. "I have told this to exactly two people – my therapist and Malcolm. Malcolm, he kinda yanked it outta me. And it was from telling him, and from kinda leaning on him too much, like a crutch, well, that was when I made the decision to finally get some long-overdue therapy."

Treve took her hands in his. "I am listening."

"When was the first time you had sex?"

"I never have," he admitted.

"Huh. I was fifteen. But, you see, that's not really true."

"It wasn't truly sex? I'm not following you."

"Oh, it was sex all right," Pamela confirmed, "but it wasn't my first time. It was my, uh, it was the first time I had ever, well, that I had ever been a voluntary participant."

They were both quiet as that sank in. "Your, your mother assaulted you?"

"No," Pamela clarified, "it was my father. But my mother knew about it. And she did nothing to stop it."

"Your sister," Treve realized, "she named her son after your father. I take it that she was untouched?"

"Exactly," Pamela confirmed. "No knowledge, nothing. I left home early. I did lab work and saved my money, finally going to Medical School here later than most people do. I worked hard and I slept with a ton of guys and I tried really hard to forget that my," she gasped a little, and her breath caught, "my father raped and beat me from when I was five until the day I finally got out. He couldn't have done it for so long – and he could not have gotten away with it – without help from her."

He pulled her to him, and she just cried for a while. A tour guide came over. "Sir, we're about to close up for the night."

"Oh, uh, sorry," Treve replied. "Pamela, let's, uh, I don't know, let's return to the hotel, all right?"

"I don't wanna deal with her. I could deal with Lisa. Hell, I was the one who called _her_ up and made the first move. It, it wasn't Lisa's fault that I got hurt. And it wasn't her fault that nothing at all happened to her."

"That's true." He was about to open the door to a taxi waiting at the stand when she blocked his hand for a moment.

"I could even handle meeting her, her husband and her daughter. But the fact that, that she named her son after that, that _monster_? I don't get it and I hate it and it hurts like hell. And it's not fair!" She pushed back, as she was getting a little loud, even though they were on the street and it was very, very public.

"Tell me whatever you wish to."

"It's, it's not fair! It's just a bunch of, of sounds! And it's not evil unto itself! Names aren't evil! That kid didn't know. And, and obviously Lisa didn't, either! So it's _me_, _I'm_ the one being unfair! _I'm_ the one who's in the wrong!"

"You reacted. You were surprised, it seemed, and maybe Lisa _did_ overdo it. Even if she had not brought your mother 'round to see you, it was already too much for you. 'Twas a kind of a, a sensory overload," Treve decided. "So, don't beat at yourself about fairness or such things."

"But that, that kid! _What the hell?_ It just, it brings it home even more. It makes me wonder if I wasn't just dreaming it all. Everybody else was in this, this perfect family. Except for me. He's dead, and I've got no way to confirm any of it. It's all just, it's like, it seems like it was all just a big, fat hallucination, that, that, that these are the ravings of a madwoman."

He turned her to face him, and looked her directly in the eye. He said, "_I_ believe you. I don't care 'bout anyone else, or anything else. They could have a, a certificate of perfection from some, some made-up authority that judges families, if there ever were such a thing, and it would not matter one whit to me." He straightened up and shouted, as loudly as he could, as pedestrians looked on. "_I, Treve of Lafa II, I believe Pamela Sharon Hudson. I believe her!_" His words echoed even in the Crystal Caverns, as the entrance was nearby. He lowered his voice considerably and, still looking her in the eye, added, "I believe her because I love her."

Shaking, she whispered back, "I, I love you too, Treve."


	2. Chapter 2

2

The next day, Lili and Malcolm sat at breakfast with the children as Mary and Stuart sat at a separate table. After a while, Lili got up. "This is absurd." She walked over to where the Reeds were sitting, eating a quiet breakfast. "Look, I know from experience with Malcolm that when you're angry with anyone, you Reeds all give each other the silent treatment. It drives me batty, and I don't think it solves anything. And that's your prerogative, I guess. But I'm not like that."

The Reeds sat, impassively. Stuart began to fiddle with his napkin, the sole sign of discomfort from either of them. "And," Lili continued, "That means I'm going to talk now. You really hurt my daughter. And she knows, despite her young age, she knows who her biological parents are. And she is abundantly aware of the fact that Malcolm is not her father. And so, yes, you're right – you are not, really, her grandparents, and you aren't Joss's, either. But you _are_ Declan's. And these are his siblings. We don't say _half-brother _and _half-sister_ in our houses. We say _brother _and _sister_. And as for Doug's two other children, we don't call them _halves _or _quarters _or _steps _or_ second-class citizens_, either. We call them _brothers_ and we call them _family_."

"How can we be certain," Stuart ventured, "whether any of this will, will be the case in a year or a decade, or so? How can anyone know that your, your husband might decide on another paramour, or even that _you_ won't? How do we or, or Declan, or anyone, how does anyone know that this, this open marriage of yours, it's so, so _tenuous_. How can anyone know that you won't start referring to your greengrocer's children as your own?" He turned away, satisfied that his point had been made.

Lili was seething, and it was all she could do to calm down. "Do you even hear yourself?" she finally asked. "How little you must think of Malcolm, to assume that I'll just go gallivanting off if his back is turned for an instant?"

"But have you not already done that with your husband?" Mary inquired. "It is not a devaluation of Malcolm, but rather, we do not wish for him to be hurt. A marriage, normally, it would cement that, that bond. But it has not done so in your instance. Even if you were divorce your husband and wed our son, how could we know that you would remain committed? It, well, it appears as though your track record is, it's dubious and unreliable, at best."

Lili felt a presence behind her. "Whatever happens," Malcolm was holding Declan, and he transferred the infant to her as he spoke, "then that is what happens. A marriage is no guarantee of eternity. I know this. We all do. For us, the vital thing is our bond together. _We love each other_. And we love our family. You can choose to accept our explanation, or not. But I will tell you something right now." The children had gotten up and were standing on either side of him, so he took their small hands in his. "These are three of _our_ children. And there are two more on Lafa II. And you do not get the opportunity to decide which ones you are going to love and favor. Accept them all, even the two Digiorno-Madden lads, or you shall see none of them."

The five of them walked to the cashier. He signed the bill over to their account and they departed.

Stuart looked at his wife. "Whatever do you imagine we should do now?"

=/\=

Treve and Pamela awoke in separate rooms, but rushed to be together and spend the day together. "I presume," he said, "that once we go downstairs, we will need to deal with your family."

"Yeah, I guess so. You'll, uh, you'll support me?"

"In this and in every endeavor."

"Then let's meet them somewhere private – maybe the hotel rooms where Lisa and her family are staying. I want to have it out, once and for all."

=/\=

The five of them walked to a taxi stand. "Where to?" asked a Tellarite cabbie.

"Mount Auburn," Lili replied.

The ride was swift, and the area was gated. Lili held Declan and led the way, to an older plot where there was a set of simply carved stones. Joss was learning to read, and he carefully sounded them out. "Richard Du-Ducasse."

"Not exactly," Lili corrected him. "He used the French pronunciation – _Richard Ducasse_."

"Oh," her elder son said. "Lilienne Ducasse. Declan O'Day. Charlotte O'Day." He stopped in front of a double stone. "Peter Thomas O'Day. Marie Helêne Ducasse O'Day. June 12th, 2118."

"Kids," Lili explained, "These are your grandparents, Peter and Marie Helêne. And these others are mine." There was a stone bench nearby, and she sat down on it.

Marie Patrice and Joss sat down beside her as Malcolm stood behind them all and asked, "How long has it been since you were here?"

"Huh, I was in my twenties, working at the Tethys Tavern," Lili explained. "I was back for my grandmother Lilienne's funeral."

"What's the date on the big stone, Mommy?" asked Joss.

Lili took a breath. "I was nine years old. And my parents decided that I'd spend the afternoon with my Ducasse grandparents. I had my homework on my child's PADD, and I had a cake on a plate that my mother had made. She had made both the cake and the plate, actually. She was a potter, and it was one of her pieces. And I had the clothes on my back."

"Where were Daddy and Mackum?" Marie Patrice asked.

"I was on Earth then," Malcolm explained.

Lili smiled wanly. "Your Daddy was on the other side of the pond. I spent the day there, at my grandparents' home in New France. As it got dark, there was a communicator call. My house was on fire." Malcolm put a hand on her shoulder. "Your grandparents died that day. If I had been there, I probably would have, too."

"And," Malcolm added, "Mummy's grandparents, they took care of her and they made certain she got an education and whatever she needed. Both sets did this."

"Yeah," Lili confirmed quietly, "they made me who I am today, you could say."

"Do you think," Joss asked, "that Grandfather Stuart and Grandmother Mary would do that for us, if they had to?"

Lili couldn't answer. She just sat there, staring into space and holding her littlest child, afraid to say what she was really thinking.

=/\=

Treve and Pamela got to Lisa's rooms. "I," Treve explained to them, "Robert, it might be best if you were to take your children to, I don't know, to a park or, or some such."

"What?" he asked.

"_Please_," Pamela said to her brother-in-law.

Lisa nodded, and Robert departed with their children. She turned to Pamela, "What's going on?"

"Lisa," Pamela explained, "when I was maybe the same age as Louise, I, uh, my life changed."

"Changed?"

"Yeah. Dad, he, uh, there's no good way to say this."

"What are you saying?"

Pamela glanced at Treve before continuing. "Lisa, he used to beat me. And he, he used me for, for sex."

The three of them were silent. "Is this true?" Lisa asked after a while, looking to Treve for confirmation. He nodded grimly. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Lisa, I couldn't, I was so afraid of him. He made me feel that I deserved it."

"Does Mom know?"

Pamela's jaw quivered. "Treve?"

The older woman gazed at the alien. "Well?" Lisa asked, "Does she?"

"Apparently," he replied, "she knew at the time."

Dumbfounded, Lisa finally flipped open her communicator. "I need to talk to Linda Hudson."

"Connecting you now," replied the communications relayer.

"Mom?" Lisa asked, "Can you come to our, our room? I need to ask you something."

=/\=

"I was hoping," Lili finally responded, "that the Reeds could be your grandparents. But if they can't, then I know the Maddens and the Digiornos will be. They already are, and they love you. I was just hoping, particularly after Mrs. Reed made you the gloves, Marie Patrice."

"I had hopes for that as well," Malcolm stated. "My sister Madeline is arriving later today. I don't know how she will feel about all of this. I do hope that you can judge her fairly and independently of our parents."

"Malcolm?" Lili asked, "Maybe let's meet her tomorrow, okay? I know that's the day we're leaving, but I just can't do it today."

"We do need to make sure that we catch the transport," he reminded her.

"Then super-early, if she can do it. Okay?" Lili asked.

"Very well," he replied, and the five of them sat at the cemetery for hours, all in quiet reflection.

=/\=

Linda Hudson arrived as quickly as she could. Before she could say anything, Lisa asked, "What happened to Pamela, when we were kids?"

"What?"

"What happened between her and Dad, and you?"

Linda had been standing, but she sat down abruptly on the bed. "I, oh God."

"Well?" Lisa persisted as Treve and Pamela looked on.

"I swore not to tell."

"He's dead, Mom," Pamela spat out, "and he has been for a few years already."

"I know. It's just, you see," Linda sighed, "I need for you to understand just what life was like."

"I got a pretty good idea," Pamela replied sharply. "I lived it, remember?"

"No, uh, I don't think you do know, not exactly, that is. We," Linda recalled, "we were _respected_. I wasn't a surgeon like my brother, Cyril. I wasn't anything."

"Mom, you're smart. And you were – are – beautiful," Lisa said.

"I certainly didn't think so," Linda admitted. "And then Professor Edward Hudson swept me off my feet. He was charming and handsome and successful. He was perfect in every way, and I was thrilled to be basking in his perfection."

Treve took Pamela's hand. "What happened?" he inquired.

"The first time he struck me, we were engaged, and arguing over some detail or other for the wedding, which was coming up soon. I was surprised more than hurt. But it was also – there were so many people coming! How would I save face if I had to suddenly uninvite all of them, and return their gifts?"

"You stayed together because of the _gifts_?" Pamela's tone was reproachful.

"Not quite. It was more that to, to not upset the apple cart, I just felt that I would be discarding this, this golden opportunity. I was the envy of everyone I knew. How could I give that up?"

Now it was Lisa's turn to wonder. "Why did you stay?"

"I got pregnant with you rather quickly, as you know. He did not lay a hand on me during that entire time, and not when you were an infant, either. I was beginning to wonder if I hadn't simply dreamt it all."

"I, uh," Pamela admitted, "I've had similar thoughts myself."

"He could put on such a perfect face to the world. He was the sort of person who no one would ever suspect. I then became pregnant again. And we were all right for quite a long while," Linda explained.

"And then I turned five," Pamela prompted.

"And then I went out to work," Linda countered. "Supper would be late, or he'd have to cook it himself. Our home wasn't always as tidy as he liked. And he didn't want to admit this but, although he did become tenured at Lunar University, he was not paid as lavishly as he liked. We became dependent upon my salary as well, and that was damaging to his pride."

"I remember, I was in school for long days a lot," Lisa said, "and you encouraged that. I took tap and I played soccer."

"Yes," Linda confirmed. "It was best for you to be, well, to be away. That, it protected you from his wrath, you see."

"And I wasn't old enough for any long days at school, I guess," Pamela mused.

"Exactly," Linda confirmed. "I started off unsure of what was happening. After all, I wasn't home a lot. But then you were not," she sighed, "you were not the only one he was taking out his frustrations on."

"So he had gone back to striking you?" Treve asked.

Linda nodded. "And it was still a few years before I could have gotten Pamela here into long day programs. And I didn't have the strength or the foresight to do so when the time did come. Lisa here was as safe as I could make her, and she helped herself by having friends and spending time with them when she wasn't busy with tap and the like. I shielded her from so much and then I, I had nothing left for, for Pamela here."

"Yeah, I was an afterthought."

"Understand," Linda pleaded with her younger daughter, "I was being assaulted, too. I had to do what I could, at least for Lisa. I know, I neglected you in favor of her. I should not have done that. I cannot begin to tell you how terrified I was then, or how sorry I am now."

"But Mom," Lisa said, "I mean, I'm not ungrateful for what you did for me, but it should never, ever have been at Pamela's expense." She turned to Pamela. "I hope you'll forgive me."

"You?" Pamela asked. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"But even for anything I did inadvertently. My life was promoted and protected on your back, for God's sake. And that was wrong."

"It was," Linda agreed. "I don't think I have the right to even ask you to _consider_ forgiveness. I was," she cast about for the right words, "I was not just wrong or misguided or even a victim, or anything. I may never have raised a hand to you or, or anything like that. But you can lay a lot of the blame at my feet, too. Your father is dead and you cannot scream at him or confront him or try to hit him back. But I am here, and you can do all those things to me, if you think they'll help at all."

They were silent for a while. Pamela spoke. "I remember you being there a few times."

Linda nodded. "That was the worst of it. I was forced to watch. He wanted me to know exactly what was going on, how bad a mother I was, and that he had the power to do it to me or you or Lisa or anyone. Hate me for it, both of you, all of you. I deserve it."


	3. Chapter 3

3

For anyone over the age of ten, there wasn't a lot of sleeping that night. Lili had been used to a very early alarm when she'd been the sous-chef on the _NX-01_, so an excruciatingly early morning was not unheard of in her world.

Malcolm found her awake, packing. "I am so very, very sorry," he murmured to her quietly, taking great care so as to not wake Declan. "I had honestly hoped they would see us, and they would understand. And I certainly had no idea that Mother had allowed Father to believe that we had wed."

"They're moving from young-old to old-old, I suspect," Lili mused, "Of course I never saw that with my own folks, and Doug avoided that with his own, too. I guess we have to make some allowances."

"A few, I'll wager," he agreed, "but never at the expense of the children. I meant what I said yesterday morning, every word of it."

She kissed him. "I know. And I love you for going to bat for them."

"Perhaps Madeline will be more tolerant. I suppose we should rouse the children. This is horribly early."

"It's worth it."

=/\=

Treve and Pamela were already packed, ready to get on an early shuttle, as it was later on Charon. They were in her room, getting the last of her things when there was a knock on the door.

"You expecting anyone?" he asked. She shook her head. He opened the door to find Lisa with her family, including Linda.

"Oh!" Pamela called out.

"I keep surprising you," Lisa apologized. "I guess I don't really know how to relate to you anymore, it's been so damned long."

"Yeah," Pamela agreed, "it has definitely been a while." She turned to Linda. "I don't know how to leave this, to be perfectly frank with you."

"I don't know, either," Linda admitted, "I don't deserve your forgiveness, so I won't even ask for it. But I want you to know, Pamela, that you matter to me. And you mattered back then, too, when you were a child. But I was too damaged and too frightened to act on any of that."

Pamela just nodded. Lisa turned to her. "Maybe we'll try to visit Lafa II, okay? We've never taken the kids out of the Solar System."

"Sure," Pamela said, "dress for the summertime; it's always warm there."

"Will do," Robert declared, shaking Treve's hand. "See you."

"Uh, yes," the Calafan was a little nonplussed, looking to Pamela for clues.

Pamela and Lisa embraced. Pamela knelt down to be on the level of her niece and nephew. "Maybe I'll paint your nails some time, Louise," she said to the girl. "And, uh, _Edward_," she forced herself to say the hated name that was symbolic of so much pain, "There are plenty of human kids on Lafa II already. I bet you could play ball, or something." She tousled his hair as she straightened up.

Linda came close to her. "I'll say it a thousand times, a million, as many times, in as many ways as you need me to, or are possible. I am sorry, Pamela."

After a few moments of silence, Pamela answered, "I am, too. I'm sorry that life was like that. I guess we were both, we were both victims."

=/\=

They stood in the lobby of the New France hotel, and a middle-aged blonde-haired woman approached. "Madeline!" Malcolm called out. He kissed his sister on the cheek. "This is Lili and Declan, and Marie Patrice and Joss."

"I didn't know I had such a pretty niece!" Madeline said. "Can I hold the baby for a moment?"

"Sure," Lili replied.

"Oh, he looks like a combination of both of you," Madeline observed, smiling down at Declan. She looked at Malcolm. "I got the gist of what happened when I saw Mother and Father yesterday. It's foolish, is what I think. And far too narrow-minded as well! It's overly and unnecessarily fussy, not to mention cruel, to exclude the little ones like that."

"Thank you for seeing it that way," Lili said, taking Declan back from her.

"Grandmother Mary!" Marie Patrice called out. Then she caught herself and said, "I mean, Mrs. Reed."

It was Stuart and Mary, exiting the lift and approaching. Stuart spoke first. "I – we – we should like to ask your, your forgiveness."

"Oh?" inquired their son.

"Yes," Mary confirmed, "we never should have been so lit'ral. It was exclusionary."

"It was insensitive," Stuart added. He bit his lower lip and looked at Mary for a moment before continuing. "We realized that, well, we put it all together and we realized that you, Mrs. Beckett, your parents are no longer with us."

"Neither are my husband's," Lili confirmed.

"And so these two, they don't truly have grandparents," Mary said, "at least, not biologically speaking. And we further reasoned, well, what if you and Malcolm _had_ wed? Were we to exclude Jeremiah and Marie Patrice just because of genetic bonds? Give Christmas presents only to the one who was created more or less in our image?"

"It was unfair," Stuart said, "and it placed the burden of propriety and tradition on, well, on the tiny shoulders of Marie Patrice and Jeremiah. And they neither asked for that, nor did they deserve that. And that propriety is; it's outdated. And those traditions, they, well, there's no reason why they cannot be altered, is there?"

"Therefore," Mary stated, "we should like to apply for the positions of grandparents to Miss Marie Patrice Beckett and Master Jeremiah Beckett. As, uh, as _Nan_ and _Daddo_, that is. And, if it's not too presumptuous, we should also like to apply for the position – which I am not certain is open – of the almost, in a way, in-laws to Mrs. Lili Beckett."

Lili's lower jaw quivered a little.

=/\=

On the transport, Treve turned to Pamela, "What do you think will happen?"

"I don't know. I'd like to think I can be the better person, but I just, I can't really forgive my mother. I still think there were things she could've done. The jury's still out."

"You know, I shall never forgive my father's paramour. And I had thought I would never forgive my own father, either. I suppose my jury is still deliberating as well."

"That's another thing we've got in common, I guess. This long-term relationship stuff is; it's tricky. But I understand now," she stated, "why you wanted to wait. And I'm fine with it. I agree with it. We need to be certain, and be on the same page in every way. Yanno, we've been going out for five months or so. If we're together for over seven, then you'll officially be my most long-term relationship, way longer than Malcolm, and even longer than I was dating Henry."

"I believe I can arrange for that. Pamela, all I want to do, all I strive for, is to exceed Malcolm and Henry in your expectations."

"You already do."

=/\=

"I, I scarcely know what to say," Lili finally stammered out.

"Mommy! Mackum! Look!" There was a large picture window and they could see that the sky over Titan had gotten golden and bright as Joss excitedly pointed.

"Let's go outside," Lili suggested.

The eight of them stood there, in the parking lot of the New France Hotel, staring at Saturn rising in the sky, creamy and yellowy and golden, its silvery rings shimmering and beautiful and magical.

Lili turned when a hand was put on her shoulder, expecting to see Malcolm. But it was Stuart instead. "Forgive an old fool, will you?"

She nodded. "Of course," she whispered. "Father."


End file.
